Unlock boot loader
The open developer community is important to us at Sony, and we have therefore made it possible to unlock the boot loader for certain releases of Xperia™ smartphones from 2011 and onwards. To find out what phone models are supported by this service, please see the Supported phones section on the Unlock the boot loader site. However, even if the phone model is supported, certain releases of the phone model may not be supported due to operator restrictions. To check if your phone can be unlocked, go through the first two steps on the Instructions page of the Unlock the boot loader site.
What does it mean to unlock the boot loader?
Unlocking the boot loader allows you to put custom ROMs on your phone. However, we recommend standard users not to unlock the boot loader, as it is not needed. We are proud to deliver great phone experiences through our rigorously tested and official software releases. If you are not familiar with this technology, then you shouldn’t unlock the boot loader. For more background information on unlocking the boot loader, go to the What is this? section of the Unlock the boot loader site.
What phones can be unlocked?
To check if you phone can be unlocked, follow the steps below:
- First, you should confirm that it is possible to unlock the boot loader of your phone by checking the service menu. In your phone, open the dialler and enter *#*#7378423#*#* to access the service menu.
- In your phone, tap Service info > Configuration > Rooting Status. If Bootloader unlock allowed says Yes, then you can continue with the next step. If it says No, or if the status is missing, your device cannot be unlocked.
